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SIPA Paranormal Chronicles S1 E13 - Andy McGrath, Presenter of Weird Britain
9 Plays10 hours ago
This week we speak to Andy Mcgrath - Presenter / Host of the British TV show Weird Britain.
We explore the weird history, weird legends and weird locations of the UK, including Loch Ness, Stone Circles, Rendlesham UFO Incident, and much much more
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to the Podcast and Guest
00:00:12
Lee Hatfield
Hello everybody and welcome to the latest SEPA Paranormal Chronicles podcast.
00:00:20
Lee Hatfield
and Today I'm delighted to have Andy McGrath on the show. He is the host of british the British TV show Weird Britain, which explores the weird history, weird legends and weird locations of the UK.
00:00:36
Lee Hatfield
So Andy, welcome to the show.
00:00:40
Andy McGrath
Hey, nice to be with you.
00:00:43
Lee Hatfield
So for all those that are listening, we've just had a half an hour of complete mayhem trying to make sure that both of us can listen. So that was that was fun.
00:00:54
Lee Hatfield
But
Focus on the Paranormal and Andy's Background
00:00:54
Lee Hatfield
now we're here. So that's the main thing. so
00:00:58
Andy McGrath
What?
00:00:58
Lee Hatfield
Andy, so obviously these this episode or the episodes that we do are all about the paranormal. And I've invited you on because of the the Weird Britain TV show. So can you tell me a bit about yourself first and then how you got into creating Weird Britain?
00:01:18
Andy McGrath
Sure, yeah. I mean, i was well, i started 2016 writing about cryptozoology, actually, and then and specifically in in Britain, what happened was I'd been into cryptozoology for years, since I was a teenager, a long, long time.
00:01:33
Andy McGrath
And I just had been working in London, in the city, 50-hour weeks for like, gosh, about 12 years or something, non-stop, me and my wife. And we decided we'd just take a year out with some savings and do like our own projects.
00:01:47
Andy McGrath
So she did hers and I was not sure what to do. And but maybe I'll do some more music again. that though i'm kind of done with that. And she said, what about this monstrous thing you're always talking about? So said, oh, yeah, maybe I could do a TV series about it.
00:02:01
Andy McGrath
And I spoke to a friend of mine who was in TV at the time. I said, well, it sounds plausible, you don't really have experience. Why don't you write a book about it first? Because actually it's a nice concept and some people just steal it from you if you just pitch it to them. I said, OK, fair enough.
00:02:16
Andy McGrath
i'll I'll write a book then. And I wrote this book called Beasts of Britain. And it went all right. It was relatively popular, relatively so, and started interviewing on lots of podcasts and and different bits of pieces.
00:02:30
Andy McGrath
And that in turn led to doing little spots on documentaries about familiar subjects such as cryptozoology and
Challenges and Insights from Hosting 'Weird Britain'
00:02:40
Andy McGrath
other subjects. And eventually, after doing a couple of those things and a few more books, met these guys who've done this great big cat documentary in Britain called Panthera Britannia.
00:02:50
Andy McGrath
And they said, well, we're doing a new TV show. you know Could you come and to help us out? I said, well, I haven't presented anything before. What would I do? And they said, don't worry, we we won't let you go out with spinach in your teeth, so to speak. It will be nicely...
00:03:05
Andy McGrath
carefully edited to make you look that like you're at your best at all times so if anybody's seen this show and thinks i'm not at my best that's with editing you know and yeah and yeah and we're it seems to be going okay it's on the history channel in the uk the moment and blaze only in the uk and uh we've just finished this ufo special and the second series which is coming out here on may 7th on on blaze tv
00:03:32
Lee Hatfield
That is pretty cool for something like that for happen just out of the blue, so to speak. It's like that must have been that must have been pretty eye opening for yourself.
00:03:39
Andy McGrath
Yeah.
00:03:44
Andy McGrath
It was definitely like a really uphill learning curve. And I think halfway through about series one, I realized that I was like in full dad mode. I was just like, you know, baggy trousers and shirts, my belly sticking out bit.
00:03:58
Andy McGrath
And then they said, maybe you could get like a bit of a uniform together but because, you know, you've been like writing books and being dad at home without anybody seeing you all these years.
00:04:02
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:04:07
Andy McGrath
And maybe you've lost a sense of, let me call that from the Matrix, residual image. have that residual image of yourself in your head. So yeah, sure. Okay. I'll lose a bit of weight and get some different clothes, which I've done series two.
00:04:21
Andy McGrath
And was, yeah, it was strange. it's just a weird thing. Cause I'd been doing a podcast and interviewing people for years. But it's different. It's a non-organic situation. We've got three cameras facing me and the interviewee, if there is one there.
00:04:38
Andy McGrath
And essentially, I'm asking the question and I'm just shutting the hell up until you finish speaking. And then checking the tag and then asking you another question. So it's like it's almost like patchwork quilting a conversation together to make it look normal, which I know it's the same for everybody that does TV, but i I wasn't aware of that.
00:04:55
Andy McGrath
I thought it'd be like podcast. I'm chatting to you now. It's all flowing. They capture it on camera. Doesn't that look great? It's not like that at all. it's really inorganic has to be it's the only way it works otherwise editing is a nightmare so i just thought that's that's an interesting thing but now i come to love it because actually you have space you have the protection of all the cameras you have space you kind of know when you can scratch your nose or you know down below because the camera's looking at the other guy and yeah it's it's fun and plus
00:05:29
Andy McGrath
We've actually traveled 25,000 miles around the UK, Series 1 and 2 in the last two years.
00:05:33
Lee Hatfield
Oh, wow.
00:05:35
Andy McGrath
25,000 miles by car. One flight in between all of that, two flights. And me and the team, but mainly it's a small team, director Matt Everett, he's the creator of the show,
00:05:48
Andy McGrath
And just, yeah, driving around and normally booking stuff, but there's a lot of run and gun as well, which essentially means we're sort of turning up when we suddenly find something when we're in an area and begging people to let us film that day.
00:06:03
Andy McGrath
They often do. They take pity on us and, you know, help us out.
00:06:06
Lee Hatfield
That's good. So did you have any choice in what each episode was going to be about? Did you have any input in that? Or did the production team tell you, well, this week we're going to go to Scotland, next week we're going to go to Cornwall?
00:06:21
Andy McGrath
Yes and no. I mean, what normally happens is we choose a county in England or one of the countries, of Wales or Scotland, cetera. And we start looking for things. And that's a bit of a team effort. Obviously, the director, the producer, have they have an overriding say on that. But them we're we're always in the car. We're always discussing things, what could be next.
00:06:43
Andy McGrath
And at this point in series three that we're about to start filming, we're We're really all in on it. And because it's something that we give to the network in its completed form, they don't have any input into it.
00:06:56
Andy McGrath
There's a lot of freedom. and You can come up with some nice and interesting places to go to. And the nice thing about the show is there's places. that you don't normally see on TV the UK or anywhere.
00:07:10
Andy McGrath
The kinds of things, and Britain's full of these types of places and folklore and myths and practices and even weird religions that people don't get a nice look at from a ah sort of a ah supportive, productive sense.
00:07:25
Andy McGrath
So whatever we're looking at, it's always in isn't this weird, wild and wonderful in the sense that isn't this great instead of a... ah Louis Theroux-esque side-eye, look at these weirdos sort of production, which seems to be a very popular British so method, doesn't it, for these documentaries. You don't do any of that. It's always, isn't this amazing?
00:07:45
Andy McGrath
Check this out. Talk to the people. Full respect. Find out what makes them tick, why they like it, why they believe it, they're interested in it, whatever the the thing is, and and take it from there.
00:07:56
Lee Hatfield
And that's really interesting because like I can kind of relate to what you've just said, because few months ago, we never had a podcast. I was toying with the idea after being invited onto one podcast to talk about SIPA.
00:08:11
Lee Hatfield
And then it was a case of I got a friend to help me set this platform up. And it was like, right, we need guests. And where do I get guests from? And as it is, I subscribe to a couple of magazines in the UK.
Loch Ness Monster and Cryptozoology
00:08:28
Lee Hatfield
So I was plucking people out the magazine, reaching out to them to see if they'd be interested. And i saw your ahre ah ah york TV show being advertised.
00:08:40
Lee Hatfield
We can't see it over here, but I thought that would be a great guy to have on the show and talk about weird Britain because there's so much stuff that goes on there. And the connections between Canada and the UK, people say, oh, that's where my yeah my heritage is from the UK.
00:08:59
Lee Hatfield
I'm British. i i was born in Lincolnshire. So... yeah To get all these people to start coming on the podcast, I've now got enough people to last me until September by going weekly.
00:09:10
Andy McGrath
great.
00:09:10
Lee Hatfield
So it's crazy. So let's go into Weed Britain season one. I know we can't really speak about season two and you've you haven't started season three yet. So.
00:09:20
Andy McGrath
I can tell you a few bits. I'll tell you a few bits of season two.
00:09:21
Lee Hatfield
Okay.
00:09:23
Andy McGrath
That's okay. few bits and pieces.
00:09:23
Lee Hatfield
Okay, so we' we'll get to that in a minute then. So everybody wants to know about episode one, season one using Scotland, searching for Nessie.
00:09:35
Andy McGrath
Oh, that special yes. Yes. So that's a big passion of mine, the Loch Ness Monster. That was the trigger that got me into cryptozoology, the Loch Ness Monster stories, looking at newspaper clippings and documentaries like the In Search Of documentary with Leonard Nimoy in the 1970s and also Arthur C. Clarke's mysterious, I mean, it just just so was just amazing.
00:10:00
Andy McGrath
Even the music at the beginning with the crystal skull and, you know, looking into all these things, just really such a big draw.
00:10:03
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:10:07
Andy McGrath
And I think for people of of my age, those were the two triggers. And that's where you've got this overview of things like like monsters or UFOs and other bits and pieces, you know, the kids of the seventies And I just thought, wow, wow goness this is amazing.
00:10:26
Andy McGrath
But is it actually real? Is there anything to it? I've been studying it for years and years. I've written books and other things about it. Even recently, a kid's book about it. And, you know, it's like it's just a serene, pristine place. You go to Loch Ness.
00:10:43
Andy McGrath
And you're expecting this massive tourist infrastructure. Okay, Fort Augustus might have a few stores and hotels and rest of it, but everything else around the loch is dotted around. And at night, it's completely dark. It's pristine.
00:10:58
Andy McGrath
You can't see hardly a light anywhere. It's still a very pristine area. So if something was to be there, and lot of the loch is not visible from the shore either, if something was to be...
00:11:10
Andy McGrath
and living there, perhaps temporarily or or otherwise, you actually get to realise this could be possible. It's deep enough, it's dark enough, it's isolated enough, even with all the tourists about. There's plenty of little nooks and crannies to hide out.
00:11:26
Andy McGrath
This could be real. And going there with my good friend, Ken Gerhard, as well as being colleagues and friends for many years, he's written great books about this and getting his
Comparing UK and Canadian Lake Monster Legends
00:11:35
Andy McGrath
expertise. You know, he's one of my peers in cryptozoology, was just really fantastic. And meeting everybody else there as well, like Alan McKenna, who's the new kid on the block in Loch Ness, but he's doing great work there. He's the new champion of Loch Ness.
00:11:54
Lee Hatfield
That's really interesting because it's really funny because I was talking to my my work colleagues yesterday and my boss is big into cryptozoology as well and was talking about Loch Ness.
00:12:06
Lee Hatfield
And over here we have Ogopogo, who is in.
00:12:11
Andy McGrath
Pogo Pogo, Iggy Pogo, Manapogo, I love them all, yeah.
00:12:11
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Exactly. and And it was really funny because I was saying, like, what about if it's the same animal?
00:12:15
Andy McGrath
Manapogo, yeah.
00:12:21
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. One month is in Canada and then the next month ah I'm going to go on vacation to Scotland.
00:12:22
Andy McGrath
yeah Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:26
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. So that was actually quite funny, as the fact that we could actually relate. And everyone was talking about the same thing over lunch. But it's interesting. yeah I spent 47 years in the UK before moving to Canada.
00:12:39
Lee Hatfield
I've been to Scotland many times and I've never, ever been to Loch Ness. Like, that is sacrilege.
00:12:49
Andy McGrath
But I mean, there's so much water and so many bodies of water in Scotland. One could forgive you for thinking you'd seen it. You know, it's somewhere along the way. It's hardly possible to even drive anywhere without capping up on a huge lock of some kind somewhere.
00:13:04
Andy McGrath
and And it's a nice place, Scotland. I mean, I really do like it.
00:13:06
Lee Hatfield
Oh, yeah.
00:13:08
Andy McGrath
Nice people, nice place. Maybe, you know, bring your own food. i'm sorry, Scottish people, but I'm not impressed. But the rest of it is wonderful. They're wonderful people. They've got a wonderful country and it's just beautiful all the time. And, and you know, they're very friendly and lovely to be around, too.
00:13:26
Andy McGrath
But Loch Ness, it's like it's a mecca, isn't it? Of late monster research.
00:13:30
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:13:32
Andy McGrath
But I I would I love Water monster sightings all around world. I'm actually writing a book about it right now. I should be finished it in a month. And things like Ogopogo, Manipogo, Igopogo, you find out when you go to these places, actually these like lake monsters are not alone. There's others in the locale. The same in Scotland.
00:13:54
Andy McGrath
Loch Ness has got Loch Oich and Loch Lochie adjoined to it. They've got lake monster sightings too. So is Loch Garriot. So on the other side, Parcel, the and that a Caledonian Canal and upptun steki all these things,
00:14:07
Andy McGrath
In Loch Leven, Loch Leap, there's monster sightings there in the sea too. And on the other side, in the Moray Firth, you know, adjoining all of these areas, you think, well, no smoke without fire, right?
00:14:20
Andy McGrath
Either these legends and these mythologies are so strong, they've affected all of these areas, or these These are a family of creatures that are inhabiting bodies of water all around the world. And I think they're probably similar species of slightly varied, but, you know, some like monsters of of of ah of who knows what description surviving on into the modern age. At least that's what I hope for at any rate.
Success and Cultural Insights of 'Weird Britain'
00:14:49
Lee Hatfield
and And that would be great if that was, know, if we could confirm that. But unfortunately, I think in this day and age, if we confirm the existence of one, then every man and his dog would go there and then that particular species would would be in jeopardy because of some of the crazy people that are about. They would go and, like, shoot it or, you know, throw hand grenades at it or whatever, and they would kill it.
00:15:15
Lee Hatfield
I think that would be the that that would be the end result, unfortunately.
00:15:19
Andy McGrath
I mean, there are laws in all of our countries to protect things like this. Even the the current wildlife legislation in the UK would protect such a thing if it was discovered. ah He wouldn't just be able to go and try to fish it or hunt it or anything like that. And I think it's the same in like Okanagan, the other places.
00:15:37
Andy McGrath
i always They say that about the big cats here. I will hope nobody finds out that proves there are big cats in the UK. People will hunt them. like We can't even bloody find them when we want to find them. Who wants us to?
00:15:49
Andy McGrath
Who's going to go and hunt them? It's like 80 years.
00:15:50
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:15:51
Andy McGrath
It's 80 something years we're looking for nests. We can't find it. And if we discovered that she was there, most definitely. How are going to know? There's no chance. She'll just be as elusive as ever, except for the fact that we'll have some kind of evidential proof that will keep things going.
00:16:09
Lee Hatfield
Okay, so after after filming that first episode, What was your thoughts? Did you think it would go to season three like it has done? what we yeah What was your immediate c plan?
00:16:20
Andy McGrath
No.
00:16:21
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:16:22
Andy McGrath
No, I thought I would just finish out season one, which took a long time, by the way, because then were all still working. So we had to fit it in where we could. No, I thought that would be it. Basically, it would sort of air on Blaze. I didn't realize it was going to go to the History Channel afterwards.
00:16:39
Andy McGrath
And that would be it with sort of a nice little experience. And then the following year, Matt said to me, hey should we just do a series two because the network want it? Yeah, fine. OK, let's just do that.
00:16:52
Andy McGrath
And yeah, it looks like we're going to start series three.
00:16:54
Lee Hatfield
Thank you.
00:16:55
Andy McGrath
And in between, we've done a UFO special as well, which is good fun. And it's nice. It's nice for this main reason. It's nice that we got to see different parts of this country that I grew up in and perhaps didn't know so well because there was no reason for me to be there in those places.
00:17:15
Andy McGrath
But also to see that even though that we are one island, Britain, or would so to speak, the island of Britain is one island, even with, and and I know there's different peoples, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, etc., Cornish, but even within each county in all those places, and in England especially, but also Wales and Scotland,
00:17:35
Andy McGrath
The people are completely different. you know this being from Lincolnshire. The people in Lincolnshire are not like the people in Nottinghamshire, right? They're very different to those people. They sound different to them. They have different words for things and they do things slightly differently.
00:17:49
Andy McGrath
And it's the same in Staffordshire and also in Worcestershire and so on and up to Yorkshire and Cumberland. these places are different but radically different. to one another and a lot of outsiders might find this in Canada they don't realize that you go to a lot of other countries and most of the country is sort of uniform-esque it might be a bit of a twinged accent in a few local customs but you're largely looking at the same cultural uh program throughout aren't you but here in Britain it's really different even from town to town and I just love that I got to to find out about that
00:18:26
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and like it's it's really funny because the amount of times that I get asked when people hear that I'm from the UK, they always kind go, oh what part of London are you from?
00:18:36
Lee Hatfield
And it it's very kind of...
00:18:37
Andy McGrath
Yeah, exactly.
Cornwall's Unique Culture and Folklore
00:18:39
Lee Hatfield
I'm going to use the term narrow minded that people think that everybody from England is from London, everybody from Scotland is from Edinburgh and everybody from Ireland is from Belfast yeah or Dublin.
00:18:47
Andy McGrath
Mm.
00:18:50
Lee Hatfield
and And it's weird that there's so much diversity, even amongst the English population.
00:18:56
Andy McGrath
Mm.
00:18:57
Lee Hatfield
that yeah and all the diverse accents and local local ah dialect. like Even in Lincolnshire, from the north to the south of the county, you can be talking completely different.
00:19:08
Andy McGrath
There you go.
00:19:10
Andy McGrath
Yeah, there you go
00:19:11
Lee Hatfield
So after visiting Scotland, you decided to go the furthest point, as far away from Scotland as you possibly could, and you wind you double it and you ended up in Cornwall.
00:19:22
Andy McGrath
go.
00:19:24
Lee Hatfield
Can you tell us about...
00:19:25
Andy McGrath
Oh yeah.
00:19:26
Lee Hatfield
your experiences there.
00:19:27
Andy McGrath
Oh, Cornwall. Cornwall is a wonderful place and I would be there today if I could be there. And I think, you know, it's, it's, what's wonderful about Cornwall is that it's,
00:19:37
Andy McGrath
For start, there are no motorways in Cornwall. There are no proper motorways there. and it They don't have them. And so it's already slightly cut off. It's difficult to get to for most of the places because there's not really a direct route there for most of the UK.
00:19:53
Andy McGrath
So you've got to want to go there for a start. And it's got this sort of mix between... an old-fashioned culture that's still celebrating some of the things that we used to do. So, for instance, they have the obios there, which is a skeletal horse, which is very similar to Wales' Mary Lloyd,
00:20:13
Andy McGrath
And they bring it out Halloween and some other times as well. But in October in the town of Tintagel, where Tintagel Castle is supposed to be, the the remnants of it, we also investigated in the series, they have this meeting between these two Celtic traditions, the skeletal horse Marycloid,
00:20:33
Andy McGrath
And the Cornish Obios, also a skeletal horse, they meet in the middle of the town. They they danced towards each other with their teasers. These people with tassels, like Morris dancers, dance around them and bring them together. And then they have what's called punko.
00:20:49
Andy McGrath
where they have it like a sing-off in Welsh and Cornish at each other to see who will sort of master the other. And whoever wins gets let into the circle. that Obviously, in this case, the Welsh have come to Cornish, so they that's normally who wins. They go into their circle to celebrate this dark gathering surrounded by different Morris dancing troops. And they had a Day the Dead thing there with some guests from Mexico.
00:21:12
Andy McGrath
was amazing. And I thought, well, this down is is really upside down. Plus, it has one of the highest density of holy wells anywhere in the country.
00:21:24
Andy McGrath
Really old. we went to this one. had to walk through ah just an overgrown hedge and forest to get there. It was beautiful flowers. there were things hanging from the trees, devotions and whatnot.
00:21:36
Andy McGrath
And a huge old Celtic cross that had been there for who knows how many hundreds of years in this old well. Yeah, nobody knew was there. It wasn't on any maps. It was just this place, bit of nowhere.
00:21:47
Andy McGrath
You've got stuff like that. You've got mermaids. You know, there's the mermaid stories like the one get in Xenor, which was, um know, responsible for a lot of famous books, even a film, I think, from the 1930s or 40s, black and white film, where the mermaid of Xenor comes back and tries to marry a new man, you know, to get his seed.
00:22:10
Andy McGrath
and it goes on and on to the owl man we went to the church where the owl man sightings even happened as well it's just it's just packed full you're always tripping over folklore in history the old and and old customs they're tripping over each other they're piled up they've been so long and i think that place just if anybody in canada is thinking of visit go there go there and spend a month just looking at all the different stuff
00:22:37
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, because funnily enough, I'm actually interviewing somebody from Cornwall tomorrow and we're talking about Jamaica Inn, which infamous.
00:22:42
Andy McGrath
Oh, who's that?
00:22:47
Andy McGrath
Oh, Karen Bissendt.
00:22:49
Lee Hatfield
Correct?
00:22:51
Andy McGrath
Yes, she's great.
00:22:51
Lee Hatfield
so Oh, awesome.
00:22:51
Andy McGrath
I love Karen. She's in the series too.
00:22:54
Lee Hatfield
Hi, Karen. We'll talk to you later.
00:22:55
Andy McGrath
Yes. Hi, Karen.
00:22:57
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:22:58
Lee Hatfield
So you mentioned Owlmen. Can you kind of like expand on that a little bit?
00:23:06
Andy McGrath
Yeah, so the Owlman. So the Owlman is a strange one. So the Owlman basically it's didn't start in the 70s, but it got go big in the 1970s. Stories about the Owlman.
00:23:20
Andy McGrath
There's a church in Old Morden in Cornwall.
00:23:22
Lee Hatfield
but
00:23:25
Andy McGrath
And in the 1970s, two girls were on holiday, i aged 9 and 12, two girls. They claimed to have seen this big bird man hovering above the tower of what Morn and Old Church. We went there to check it out.
00:23:39
Andy McGrath
And they ran off they told their parents. The parents went to the police and they they gave statements. They drew sketches. They separated them. They drew sketches.
00:23:47
Lee Hatfield
Thank
00:23:48
Andy McGrath
This weird five-foot tall owl-like creature with like black cord, feet with the big black beak started terrifying people in the area. that People start reporting, seeing red glowing lights going through the air. And then this other group of friends say that they saw an owl man sitting on a large branch of the pine tree.
00:24:07
Andy McGrath
They think... It's a joke that somebody's a costume. It takes off, making this electrical sort of crackling noise and just flies away. You've got these red eyes. So they're talking about a creature five to six feet tall, grey-brown owl, like an owl, black mouth, black pincer-like clothes, red glowing eyes, and a wingspan 10 feet across.
00:24:29
Andy McGrath
So, okay, it could be something like a Eurasian eagle owl, for example. A dew occasionally comes to the UK, and you saw one of those in the dark night, would definitely be very proud, especially in the 1970s. You wouldn't be expecting anything like that.
00:24:45
Andy McGrath
But it's not the only one. There's also an owl man of Havreford West, which is in West Wales. And in that one, people have seen it since the 1960s. So this is, i think this is even pre-Mothman sightings in the US.
00:25:00
Andy McGrath
And somebody was drunk walking through St. Thomas' churchyard, Haverford West at night. And he sees this giant owl, flies from a tree, lands in front of him, and it's just there, this huge thing. He's terrified, he runs into the pub, tells all his mates, oh, I've seen this six foot tall owl with the legs of a man.
00:25:19
Andy McGrath
And, you know, they all make fun of him, basically. But later, later, an elderly man says he actually encountered an alman just 10 years before this sighting, when he was coming out early in the morning. So he it's when he confirms the sighting.
00:25:38
Andy McGrath
So pushing on to 2013, there's a young couple in the same place. They're in the graveyard there for whatever reason. And... They flee. This owl man basically comes running through the graveyard at them. And they flee. They run out of the yard to tell all their friends.
00:25:53
Andy McGrath
Then they recapture their their courage. They decide to go back to the churchyard and and take a picture of it. They've got the camera, but it's gone. It doesn't come back. This has gone on for for ages, but there's caveats with it. So for anybody who might have heard of the now recently deceased i wish it wizard, Tony and performer, Tony Doc Shields.
00:26:15
Andy McGrath
might be aware of him. So he was somebody who was around at that time. He claimed to have raised Nessie with his magic from, and Morgar, the Cornish Sea Serpent, from the waters.
00:26:26
Andy McGrath
And he also, if you've ever seen the Nessie Muppet photo, that was him, that fake belonged to him. He also claimed to have raised Morgar and also had a lot to do with his owl man sighting. So it's hard to sort of extirpate him from from this situation.
00:26:43
Andy McGrath
Not to say that he was responsible for it, but he did report on a lot of things like this and it slightly has tainted the legend as to whether it could be genuine or was it perhaps one of Tony's japes, you know, building up this macabre, cryptozoological dark world in in different parts of the UK that he visited.
00:27:04
Lee Hatfield
i I love hearing about stories like that because I'm one of these people where I think I call myself a sceptic with an open mind. So if I hear a story like that, I want to be in a position where I see what they've just seen.
00:27:22
Lee Hatfield
I want to see that because then I can experience it for myself. And if they say it it was a five foot, six foot tall hour man,
00:27:33
Lee Hatfield
I can say, OK, I saw exactly the same thing. So that's the kind of thing that I want to to experience. But while you were in Cornwall, I believe you also investigated theories.
Skepticism and Personal Belief in Paranormal Investigation
00:27:48
Andy McGrath
We did have a little look at fairies, Piskies, as they call them there, Piskies. Fairies for me is very interesting because it's all over the UK, it's all over Europe. It's actually kind of all over the world in in different forms.
00:28:05
Andy McGrath
And the they have so many different types of appearances. Fairies encompass everything from the Piskies to gnomes, right? And i even...
00:28:15
Andy McGrath
like sort of trolls and and other things like that. I imagine they they all belong to that world. But in that pisky kind of sense, it seems to be a belief that still exists in Cornwall to this day in the same way that it exists within the population of Ireland and Iceland.
00:28:32
Andy McGrath
And that interested me more than anything else. Why? What is it about the culture there that has kept this superstition, in a way, alive? Why do people still believe in it? And I've actually since met many people, very genuine, real, ah ah open and honest people who believe that they have seen theories in that area and that they're real.
00:28:55
Lee Hatfield
Yeah. Again. Yeah. Do I believe in theories or not? It's like I haven't experienced it. So i at this moment in time, I can't pass judgment.
00:29:07
Lee Hatfield
But again, what people what people have seen, i want to know what they've seen.
00:29:08
Andy McGrath
No, no, exactly.
00:29:12
Lee Hatfield
I want to be there when they see that. So I can tell myself. yeah some rational human being that what they saw was genuine and not something mistaken for.
00:29:24
Lee Hatfield
Because you anybody that's in this kind of field knows about pareidolia. They know about auditory pareidolia. So they know that the brain can misinterpret what they what they think they see and try and make it into something rational.
00:29:33
Andy McGrath
Hmm.
00:29:41
Lee Hatfield
So like your faces on toast and stuff like that. So how much of this is that kind of environment compared to what they actually saw?
00:29:53
Lee Hatfield
And I can't say you you wasn't there.
00:29:53
Andy McGrath
Yeah.
00:29:55
Lee Hatfield
i wasn't there. So we can't pass judgment. We can only take their word for what they've what they've seen.
00:30:03
Andy McGrath
Of course, and you know, it's often so wrapped up in folklore, but also personal belief for many people as well. And what I found investigating cryptozoology, but also the paranormal, is that oftentimes when I'm talking to people are very invested in it I i pick up on a sense of belief and and and there's a structure of religion in the beliefs that they hold about not saying that it is their religion
00:30:33
Andy McGrath
But that there's it does form a philosophical outlook of a type.
00:30:36
Lee Hatfield
just
00:30:38
Andy McGrath
And when you have that, you can't maintain objectivity anymore. Like me with Nessie. I want there to be a Nessie. I want it to be a prehistoric survivor. And until I find out otherwise, that's where that's what I'm looking for.
00:30:51
Andy McGrath
I cannot take myself out of that the the subjectivity of that position because it forms part of my world view and I'm really into it basically so you know that that happens with all kinds of things and obviously if you've seen something as well and you believe you know what you've seen seen You become a believer by default. You cannot see what you have seen.
00:31:15
Andy McGrath
Therefore, nobody can convince you otherwise. That it was a monster, imposter, or it was a trick of life, it was pareidolia, you were under stress. Whatever the other things that we can put into the situation are, nobody can convince you of that.
00:31:29
Andy McGrath
And that's why you see people all of the time. when no matter what their position in life is or what the risks are, when they had a big experience, they go chap they start telling everybody.
00:31:40
Andy McGrath
They can't help it because it's almost like for validation, I have to say, no, I saw this. I need somebody to believe me regardless of what it costs me.
00:31:46
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:31:48
Andy McGrath
And that's very interesting to me. But as a researcher, I never defend the indefensible. It's not my position to believe it or not believe it. I only have to investigate it.
00:31:59
Andy McGrath
That's my only job and lay out the basic facts surrounding you know what people believe are about it or what the encounter was.
00:32:08
Lee Hatfield
and And that's the good thing. And and that's like a common sense approach. yeah You can't judge that individual. You wasn't there at that time. But what you can do, you can get as much evidence as possible or as much information and you can provide the facts.
00:32:19
Andy McGrath
Oh.
00:32:27
Lee Hatfield
ah ah about yeah UFOs or theories or cryptids.
00:32:31
Andy McGrath
Yeah.
00:32:32
Lee Hatfield
And I think that's that's the way that most sheep people should be rather than go, you're a crazy person. yeah I don't want anything to do with you. and like Yeah.
00:32:42
Andy McGrath
Yeah, that's never never a good start.
00:32:43
Lee Hatfield
yeah yeah
00:32:47
Andy McGrath
When it comes to witnesses, that that always that that never goes down well with them. I find that the hard way. you know it's You know, it's just because somebody is trusting you essentially as well. Now, when you something big happens, somebody comes tells you about it, they are trusting you. They're saying, I trust you as the researcher to sort of take my encounter and make something of it try to make sense of it even, if that's what they're looking for.
00:33:12
Andy McGrath
And so here it is And if you're like, well, You know, it's not a good look. It doesn't help people. And even if that was the case, if some of the people experienced the experiencing an encounter actually had, you know, an affectation, they had such a mental health issue, if that was the case, still not going to help them to say that.
00:33:34
Andy McGrath
You know, if i if I really, really believe that was the case, I would just thank them for the sighting and and log it, basically, instead of... I might not spread it everywhere, but I would at least give them that respect. And I think that goes a long way.
00:33:47
Andy McGrath
And the show is all about that. We're just talking to people about what they've seen, what they believe, and if it's history and folklore sometimes too, and why they got into
Diverse Scope of the Podcast and UFO Discussions
00:33:57
Andy McGrath
it. And that's very interesting because it's almost like sociology.
00:34:01
Andy McGrath
There's a reason that these triggers take us. There's also a reason that our cultures in the past celebrated them. And in some cases, we are celebrating them again. It must have been a revival.
00:34:12
Lee Hatfield
Absolutely. So I'm not going to talk about every single episode because we'll be here until midnight, but I'm going to pick a ah ah few of my favorites.
00:34:18
Andy McGrath
Yeah.
00:34:23
Lee Hatfield
So you've been to many places around the UK, but I'd like you to touch on the Rendlesham UFO incident.
00:34:35
Andy McGrath
Yes, yeah. Rendlesham was like a portal, actually. And I say that in a sort of, as as a euphemism, we for this would the where we first started filming, when I started filming with them, it was the first place we went.
00:34:49
Andy McGrath
And we ended up going back there six times for some reason. And one of the takes that we do in front of the... the Rendlesham UFO monument, we've done in six different takes in that very same line about it.
00:35:04
Andy McGrath
yeah lot of people might not know about it. It's one of the most famous UFO cases in the UK. So in 1980, Christmas 1980, there's an RAF base nearby. There's also an American base nearby.
00:35:16
Andy McGrath
There's nuclear deterrence in this area, in in Suffolk, basically. And so... There's some weird sighting that happens. Some weird craft is spotted.
00:35:28
Andy McGrath
And some some of the local people in the race, that they go out to investigate it. And they have experiences. Two of the men get really close to the UFO, which is on the ground.
00:35:39
Andy McGrath
One of them touches it and later claims to have all kinds of messages implanted into him. But one of them... who sees it when a third man is a Colonel Holt he's basically running the base he's got a lot to lose by reporting this but he reports seeing this craft and being very confused and there's even a recording of his uh of him seeing it live he's recording what's going on now a lot of people say to me well why was he recording well look you're walking in the forest in the middle of the night it's dark
00:36:10
Andy McGrath
You're a military person. You have to take records of what's happening. You can't write. So you record. So that's what they were doing. So he's recording it. And that so it unfolds.
00:36:21
Andy McGrath
Now, this has gone on for years and years. Everybody thinks it could be something. Some people say there was a shuttle recovery unit close by for the for the for the NASA shuttle.
00:36:32
Andy McGrath
And that's true. And that one Christmas, the ah ah local boys in the other base played a trick. on on the Americans in the the base at the bottom and got a helicopter dressed up lights and flew the shuttle down the runway and bumped into the lights, which actually did happen.
00:36:50
Andy McGrath
The lights were knocked by something and they were bent over. So perhaps they dumped it in the forest. Perhaps they cocked up this, cooked up this, UFO story because it was such a huge incident.
00:37:03
Andy McGrath
They were cocking about. They crashed this shuttle into the landing lights yeah on the runway, dumped it in the forest. They had to come up with some cock and pull story as to what happened because there's nuclear deterrence nearby and they've really messed up.
00:37:17
Andy McGrath
And that's a real long shot, really. Everybody who was involved to hold that story for 40 plus years. and a colonel to get involved and make that kind of report seems really out there.
00:37:30
Andy McGrath
Also, some other people say that the lighthouse, which was not too far away, on misty nights, that was a misty night, that sometimes the beam coming through the trees as it swings around could really convince you that something above you. But these the these Air Force personnel, they were local there. They were stationed there.
00:37:49
Andy McGrath
They would have seen the lighthouse. They patrolled the area. They would have seen the lights before. It could not have surprised them. So it's a very strange thing. but Something weird happened to us in the episode.
00:38:00
Andy McGrath
I went out there with a a psychic lady. She had these two divining rods. And she went to a spot in the field. where In the pond forest where it was supposed to have landed. And we found an indentation. Who knows where it was from. could have just been a general forest smulch.
00:38:16
Andy McGrath
But within this indentation, our EMF reader... had a reading. The forest has no electronics in it, we had none on us, the camera was far enough away, and yet, matter how many times we put this EMF back into the hole,
00:38:30
Andy McGrath
A reading came up, it was only about 16 or 17. It wasn't high, it definitely went back to zero every time we pulled it out. I thought, well, isn't that this's not strange? and This is a weird thing that's happened. And it's defined British ufology ever since, really.
00:38:47
Andy McGrath
It's been non-stop. That's actually a big feature our UFO special. People can see if they if they can still thinking get into to blaze for the UK player. But yeah, a wonderful place.
00:38:59
Andy McGrath
Very eerie. I've been there after dark as well. Flashing lights into the sky, trying to get something back as some of the UFO researchers told me I should i should do that.
00:39:10
Andy McGrath
And it was odd how it was just quiet. There was no, wasn't even a hoot of an owl anywhere. was just like a dead place, this forest. It was really strange.
00:39:20
Lee Hatfield
And like that's that's one thing that I do enjoy to hear about UFO stories. ah been I've interviewed a UFO investigator and I've got another guy lined up. But, yeah, in this day and age, we have Chinese lanterns, we have drones, we have yeah secret flights by the military, and we have spycraft.
00:39:46
Lee Hatfield
But back in the day, like when Renshulham... happened most of this technology did not exist so if it was something that they kept under wraps they did a really good job of keeping it under wrap for 40 years for sure so and and exactly yeah
00:40:02
Andy McGrath
Hmm.
00:40:06
Andy McGrath
Somebody would have broken, right? Somebody. there they I mean, it's all declassified. Now, they're all they've all been discharged for many, many years. Surely, there was a big cover-up and it was just a shuttle.
00:40:17
Andy McGrath
Although, there was another thing in that. And I'm not ley levying any accusation against the men involved here, by the way, but just sort of... speculating that there is a whole sort of talk circuit, a TV circuit that accompanies this sighting.
00:40:35
Andy McGrath
Could it be that they've just fallen into, you know, UFO careerism and they've got to keep it going? It still seems like a bit of a stretch, even even for that sort of reward, if you ask me.
00:40:47
Lee Hatfield
hundred percent So we've kind of touched on season one and obviously we've not spoke about every episode. And if people can get a chance to watch it this side of the pond, then I highly recommend it.
Preview of 'Weird Britain' Season Two and Beyond
00:41:00
Lee Hatfield
I'm going to find somewhere to watch it for sure. So what can listeners expect in season two?
00:41:10
Andy McGrath
Oh, wow. Okay, so season two, we go to Yorkshire. There's a whole section where we're but finding out about werewolf legends in Yorkshire. And we even do a hunt.
00:41:22
Andy McGrath
We also look at sort of fairy mounds in Yorkshire as well, which is really fantastic. We go back to Cornwall. You just heard about part of it then for the Dark Gathering and a few other bits to get a bit more sort of Cornish culture in and also to to climb through a megalithic portal.
00:41:39
Andy McGrath
And, you know, who knows if I disappear or if I come out the other side. It's all it's all up in arms. We also had a great bit in Worcestershire. There's a double episode in Worcestershire. lot of history, really interesting background.
00:41:52
Andy McGrath
Knights Templar stuff as well. We also go to Rostyn Chapel. in Scotland for a Knights Templar bit and and also meet one of the the women who was allowed invited by the family to investigate all of the carvings inside and look into their history and explain them. We interview her and she keep gives us a really amazing sort of bit on that.
00:42:12
Andy McGrath
We also find that stuff about sort of historical biblical stuff the possibility that the the holy grail has been found one of many and we interviewed the researcher who thinks he may have found it i get to drink out of it as well which is why you know i still look like i'm under 60 and
00:42:34
Andy McGrath
Sorry. And yeah, a lovely things as well, but to do with like May poles and May Day celebrations, earth trees, the oldest, at at the white oak that used to be the center of the universe for sort of paganism in the UK. We investigate that.
00:42:53
Andy McGrath
just goes on and on and on. And also there's one entire episode that, dedicated to fun, which is called weird events. And I go to the cheese roll. I take part at the chili eating festival.
00:43:06
Andy McGrath
I, I captain a river raft in Monmouth, the river raft race. I swim in a bog, which is the coldest thing that's ever happened to me, by the way. so yeah, there's a lot of fun in that one too.
00:43:18
Lee Hatfield
thats
00:43:20
Andy McGrath
We just have a bit of a laugh at it just have like, that's the special of this one, like a fun, You know, we're not looking anything serious. It's just about what a British people, what strange stuff do we do to have a bit of fun?
00:43:31
Lee Hatfield
Yeah, and and that's one thing that I like about the way that I'm doing these podcasts. Yeah, even though it's Paranormal Chronicles, if you Google the word paranormal, there's so many different subsections that people don't even connect to the paranormal.
00:43:49
Lee Hatfield
And folklore, like we've been talking about most of today, also comes under that umbrella. Right. So it's really good to talk about different things rather than just ghosts and spirits and and stuff like that.
00:43:56
Andy McGrath
yeah
00:44:03
Lee Hatfield
So season three is you've started that yet you're about to start?
00:44:09
Andy McGrath
We start next Tuesday, actually. We start next Tuesday.
00:44:14
Lee Hatfield
So where's your first location?
00:44:14
Andy McGrath
and lots of
00:44:15
Lee Hatfield
are you going to film?
00:44:17
Andy McGrath
i won't tell you the first location. I can't tell you that. but i will I will tell you the first county that we're investigating is Hertfordshire.
00:44:24
Lee Hatfield
Okay, I was actually going to say that. said, don't tell us the location, but just tell us the county.
00:44:25
Andy McGrath
Hertfordshire.
00:44:28
Andy McGrath
Yeah, I can't say where it's going to be because they they want to keep that a little bit secret.
00:44:32
Lee Hatfield
Yeah.
00:44:33
Andy McGrath
I mean, with season two now, it's just just about to happen. you know it's it's It's a month away, less than. But yeah, looking forward to season three. Lots of adventures again and really some really, really amazingly different places that have been a nightmare to try to get hold of and get into up until now.
00:44:52
Andy McGrath
But ne that they seem to have opened the door and they're going to let us have a peek and film a bit.
Favorite Filming Locations and Conclusion
00:44:57
Lee Hatfield
So what I would like to do, once season two has been out and you've started like preparing to at release season three, I'd love to have you back on so we can do an update on on on Weird Britain.
00:45:10
Lee Hatfield
And hopefully we won't have the yeah the internet issues like we had at the beginning the episode this time.
00:45:15
Andy McGrath
Oh, it's fine.
00:45:16
Lee Hatfield
But if you have to pick a favourite location, final question before we have to go, where would you pick?
00:45:24
Lee Hatfield
You can't choose Loch Ness.
00:45:27
Andy McGrath
you know I think it was that Holy Well in Cornwall, actually. ah It was a very beautiful place and it was a big surprise to see it in the middle of nowhere, that people go there, but generally speaking, nobody knows about it in the general public. You could never find it by yourself. Somebody had to take us there.
00:45:47
Andy McGrath
And I thought, it's amazing to me that stuff like that still exists hundreds and hundreds of years later, for whatever purpose people use it now. Yeah, it was just a wonderful thing. like And it was a lovely sunny day, so that's it. That's the nice place. And the two people we interviewed were also lovely. They were very nice people.
00:46:04
Lee Hatfield
I'm sorry, did you just say that you had a sunny day in the UK?
00:46:09
Andy McGrath
Yeah, it was. It was actually in the summer.
00:46:10
Lee Hatfield
it just
00:46:11
Andy McGrath
It was in the summer.
00:46:11
Lee Hatfield
Just what?
00:46:12
Andy McGrath
And i' I'm pale people too, so I was hiding. What I loved about that sunny day around the world and the the forest surrounding it or the glade that people have made, was that it was the sunlight was dappled. It was kind of protecting us, but we're getting the nice little bits too.
00:46:28
Andy McGrath
And he's always hiding from the sun. He always hides from it because i I'm not made for the sun.
00:46:34
Lee Hatfield
yeah
00:46:34
Andy McGrath
I'm made for Irish or Welsh weather, you know, up until spring, up until late spring, and then things get uncomfortable.
00:46:42
Lee Hatfield
Awesome. Well, Andy, it's been a really great chat. I've learned some new things about my my homeland.
00:46:47
Andy McGrath
Thank you.
00:46:50
Lee Hatfield
and Like I said, please come back and we'll have an update on further episodes. But for now, I'd like to thank you for your time and have a great rest of the day.
00:47:00
Lee Hatfield
Thank you very much.
00:47:02
Andy McGrath
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.